By Steve Bargeton, political editor

TRANSPORT MINISTER Tavish Scott was last night accused of dragging his feet on the latest review into tolls on the Forth and Tay road bridges.

At the end of March the minister told the Scottish Parliament: “We will take forward a full economic analysis of the impact that tolls and congestion have on local people, businesses and the wider Scottish economy.”

An “examination” of the economic, social and environmental impact on Fife and Dundee and the cost of retaining or removing tolls would be “reported on as soon as possible.”

Almost five weeks on, MSPs have tried in vain to discover what, if anything, has been done.

Dundee East MSP Shona Robison, whose motion calling for the Tay tolls to be scrapped was defeated after Fife Liberal Democrat and Labour backbenchers failed to support it, has received replies to a series of written questions.

Ms Robison asked the minister how much the review would cost, who would conduct the research, when the review would begin, and when the research was likely to be published.

Each time the answer was: “We will report on the proposals for this study as soon as possible.”

Last night she furiously accused Mr Scott of “delaying tactics.”

“I am really disappointed with these replies,” she said.

“I submitted them the day after the SNP’s debate in parliament about the tolls on the Tay at the end of March.

“During that debate, the transport minister said the details of the examination would be published as soon as possible. Nearly five weeks later we are still waiting for action.

“It is simply not good enough. When the Executive lodged their amendment to my very straightforward motion calling for the Tay bridge tolls to be abolished, they should have thought out a timescale as to when this review would take place.

“As we suspected, it now looks like it was merely a delaying tactic to kick this issue into the long grass.

“All it means is that the people of Dundee and Fife remain in a state of limbo and are still having to pay these regressive charges on a daily basis.

“This behaviour is typical of the Labour and Liberal Executive who would rather stall progress than to take bold action.

“I urge the Executive to hurry up with this economic review so we can find out what we already know—that the charges are unfair, they negatively impinge upon the people of Dundee and Fife, and that the time for tolls on the Tay is well and truly up.”

Yesterday The Courier asked the Executive if there was any movement on the review.

A spokesman said, “The position is that we will report on the proposals as soon as possible.”